EditThe process to return the remains of 28 defence personnel and one child from cemeteries in Malaysia and Singapore to this country will begin next week.
The remains of Defence Force are handed over to families after being returned from Suva and Pago Pago in a ceremony in May. Photo: Supplied / NZDF
They included 27 soldiers who served in Vietnam and Malaysia, and one airforce officer. The child belonged to a member of the New Zealand Army serving in Malaysia at the time.
Remains of a total 36 military and their dependants are to be returned this year, including three who came home in early May from the Pacific.
It comes after a change in policy which allows for the return of military personnel and their dependants buried overseas between 1955 and 1971.
The remains of those being returned will be exhumed from Terendak Military Cemetery, Taiping Christian Cemetery and Cheras War Cemetery in Malaysia, as well as Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore.
A disinterment team consisting of bioarchaeologists and forensic anthropologists from New Zealand universities and defence force odontologists, or denists, will help with the identification of the remains.
Once that is completed, New Zealand Defence personnel will conduct a 24-hour vigil around the caskets until they are returned to New Zealand.
They are scheduled to arrive back in New Zealand on 21 August and handed back to their families after a ramp ceremony at Auckland International Airport in Auckland.
Two service personnel buried in the United Kingdom will be repatriated in September and two from South Korea will return home in October.